Nathan Bailey, Dictionarium Britannicum (1730)

Date

1730

Lexicographer

Book title

Dictionarium Britannicum: Or a more Compleat Universal Etymological English dictionary Than any Extant. Containing Not only the Words, and their Explication; but their Etymologies from the Antient British, Teutonick, Low and High Dutch, Saxon, Danish, Norman and Modern French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, &c. each in its proper Character. Also Explaining hard and technical Words, or Terms of Art, in all the Arts, Sciences, and Mysteries following. Together with Accents directing to their proper Pronuntiation, shewing both the Orthography and Orthoepia of the English Tongue, Viz. In Agriculture, Algebra, Anatomy, Architecture, Arithmetick, Astrology, Astronomy, Botanicks, Catoptricks, Chymistry, Chyromangy, Chirurgery, Confectionary, Cookery, Cosmography, Dialling, Dioptricks, Ethicks, Fishing, Fortification, Gardening, Gauging, Geography, Geometry, Grammar, Gunnery, Handicrafts, Hawking, Heraldry, Horsemanship, Husbandry, Hydraulicks, Hydrography, Hydrostaticks, Law, Logick, Maritime and Military Affairs, Mathematicks, Mechanicks, Merchandize, Metaphysicks, Meteorology, Navigation, Opticks, Otacousticks, Painting, Perspective, Pharmacy, Philosophy, Physick, Physiognomy, Pyrotechny, Rhetorick, Sculpture, Staticks, Statuary, Surveying, Theology, and Trigonometry. Illustrated with near Five Hundred Cuts, for Giving a clearer Idea of those Figures, not so well apprehended by verbal Description. Likewise A Collection and Explanation of Words and Phrases us'd in our antient Charters, Statutes, Writs, Old Records and Processes at Law. Also The Theogony, Theology, and Mythology of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, &c. being an Account of their Deities, Solemnities, either Religious or Civil, their Divinations, Auguries, Oracles, Hieroglyphicks, and many other curious Matters, necessary to be understood, especially by the Readers of English Poetry. To which is added, A Collection of Proper Names of Persons and Places in Great-Britain, with their Etymologies and Explications. The Whole digested into an Alphabetical Order, not only for the Information of the Ignorant, but the Entertainment of the Curious; and also the Benefit of Artificers, Tradesmen, Young Students and Foreigners. A Work useful for such as would Understand what they Read and Hear, Speak what they Mean, and Write true English. Collected by several hands, The Mathematical part by G. Gordon, the Botanical by P. Miller. The Whole Revis'd and Improv'd, with many thousand Additions, By N. Bailey.

Publication place

London

Publisher

T. Cox

Text type

printed book

Genre

General English Dictionaries and Glossaries

Language

headwords: English
explanations: English
explanations: English

Word-group

type: alphabetical

Word-entry

type: headword
sample: STA'TIONARY [stationarius, prob. of statione, L. because in antient times they kept their shops together in one station or street] a dealer in paper, books, &c.

STC

T087977

Other editions

1736 (ESTC T087976; 2nd edn.)

Criticisms

Simpson, John A. "Nathaniel Bailey and the Search for a Lexicographical Style." Lexicographers and their Works. Ed. G. James. n.p.: University of Exeter Press, n.d. 181-91. view record
McCracken, David. "The Drudgery of Defining: Johnson's Debt to Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum." Modern Philology 66 (1969): 338-41. view record
Tucker, Susie I. "Dyche and Pardon's Dictionary: A Study in Personal Bias." English: The Journal of the English Association 11:66 (1957): 226-29. view record